


Wanted

by florahowell



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Angst, Criminal Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Doctor Petra, Doctor/Patient, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Morally Questionable Activities, Murder, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:47:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21960409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/florahowell/pseuds/florahowell
Summary: Levi’s having a hard time finding the mysterious leader of a group of assassins trying to hunt him down. Even though he doesn’t want anybody else involved, he might not be able to survive the constant attacks without help.
Relationships: Levi & Petra Ral, Levi/Petra Ral
Comments: 52
Kudos: 110





	1. No help needed

**Author's Note:**

> This work is set in the same universe and is a prequel for my Eremika fancfiction Close.
> 
> If you have any thoughts about my work, please, don't hesitate to share them. I'm still learning as a writer, so I'm alwasy grateful for feedback.
> 
> If you're here for the smut only, no shame, that's in Chapter 5.

Levi was trying to breath. He felt like he had been run over by a bus, and the heavy vehicle was still parking on his chest. He tried to breath in again, but the air got stuck somewhere halfway. He opened his mouth slightly and coughed, sending a sudden, sharp pain into his right shoulder. He groaned and reached for the wound out of instinct, but instead of blood and flesh his fingers felt soft, clean gauze. He left his hand lying across his chest and tried to breath in again, this time more carefully.

He managed a slightly painful, shaky breath and opened his eyes to slits. He slowly started to regain consciousness. He tried to swallow, but his throat was so dry that he had to suppress another cough. He blinked his eyes open, but the bright white of the hospital room made him flinch immediately.

“I see you’re awake, Mr. Ackerman,” he heard an unfamiliar voice from beside his bed. “How are you feeling?”

Levi growled and looked around again. He finally managed to identify the room in the Eldia Hospital’s private wing, owned by the Smith and Smith Co., and he also started to remember how he got there. “I have to go,” he tried to sit up, but halfway through the movement he was abruptly stopped by another wave of immense pain in his shoulder and the tiny woman’s surprisingly firm hand on his chest.

“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to stay in bed for a while.” She took her hand off him and gave him a well-practiced polite smile. 

He looked up at her and frowned. “Can I talk to my doctor, please?”

“You are,” she answered in a calm measured voice.

He looked the stranger up and down thoroughly. He couldn’t recall seeing her before. He remembered Erwin mentioning that they were in need of new doctors, but he wasn’t sure if she was one of them. She was a woman of short stature, seemingly not too muscular, but he already knew she didn’t lack physical strength. She kept a carefully composed, friendly expression on her face. “Where’s Hange?”

“They’re currently out of town. I’m Dr. Ral. I treated your gunshot wound and all other injuries, so if you have a question or anything else to say, please, do not hesitate to share.”

“If you were a hitman, you would have killed me already, wouldn’t you?”

Genuine surprise flashed across the woman’s face for a short moment. “Yes, probably. I wouldn’t have introduced myself first for sure.”

“Marvelous,” he moaned. “Now, Miss Ral, would you be so nice and give me enough painkillers so that I can go and do my job?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Which would be?”

“None of your business,” Levi wanted to say, but all he could manage was an angry groan. That woman was really starting to piss him off, and his rapidly rising blood-pressure didn’t do much good for his already dizzy head. He squeezed his eyes shut and massaged his forehead with one hand. He kept his voice low. “I’m looking for the gentleman who is responsible for this wound alongside most of my other injuries, and I have to find him before he finds me.”

Before she answered the woman walked to the end of the bed, reached for his record, and started taking some notes on it. “Well, you don’t have to worry about that. He’s right here in the room next door.” She gestured towards the mentioned place with the pen in her hand.

“What?” he looked up so quickly that his head fell back to the pillow immediately. “Why the fuck is he here?”

“He was found unconscious with severe injuries in the warehouse with you, so Armin brought him in too,” she explained patiently.

“And you treated him?” He didn’t have the energy to keep his voice calm anymore.

She heaved a small sigh. “Yes.”

“The bastard almost killed me!” he shouted.

“Yes, and you almost killed him.” Even though the woman still spoke in a measured manner, Levi could hear in her voice that she was losing patience.

“But you saved his fucking life.” He shook his head. 

She put her pen away and slipped the medical records back to the case at the end of the bed. “I saved both of your fucking lives. I’m a doctor, so that would be my job.” She didn’t look at him. She causally walked to the table in front of the window and started to fiddle with a small, orange glass filled with some liquid.

Levi got even dizzier and felt like his head was going to explode. He needed all his remaining energy for that, but he managed to squeeze a determined, mildly intimating voice out of himself. “Look, Miss Ral, you may haven’t heard of this company before, but I’ll help you out here. If I happen to have a gunfight with a fucking hitman, and he somehow survives, you do not save that rat. You only save me. Then, if I tell you to give me painkillers and let me go, you do exactly that. No objections, no questions. Would that be clear?”

The woman turned around without a word and pushed a syringe into his upper arm with no warning at all. “Look, Mr. Ackerman; first of all, it’s Dr. Ral. Which means that it’s my job to save not only yours, but the lives of other rats as well. And you may haven’t been in a hospital before, so I’ll help you out here. You are my patient. So, if I tell you to stay in bed, you stay in bed. No objections, no questions. Now, would that be clear?” She pulled out the needle and shot a polite yet intimidating smile at Levi.

The man froze for a moment. Not only because he was so shocked by the tiny woman’s reaction, but also because his head suddenly started to feel very heavy. It was like he’d been hit with a baseball bat. He tried to stay conscious, but his vision was already getting blurry. He looked at the small, red dot on his left arm. “Have you just drugged me?” he murmured.

“You asked for painkillers, didn’t you?” the woman shrugged and walked out of the room, leaving him to faint back to sleep.

*

The next time Levi woke up he was welcomed by another visitor. The tall, blonde man was standing by the table in front of the floor to ceiling window, his hands in his pockets, his eyes fixed on the traffic down the busy street. As he heard Levi moving, he turned around and got to his bed with just a few long steps. He looked him up and down. “I though you would never wake up.”

“That fucking woman fucking drugged me!” he grumbled. He took a deep breath and looked around in the room again. In spite of the massive amount of anesthetics – or what not – he still had a mild headache, and the pain in his shoulder wasn’t completely gone either.

“She’s your doctor, what were you expecting?” Erwin raised an eyebrow, the corners of his lips curving up slightly.

Levi allowed himself a smaller eyeroll. “Do we really lack personnel so much that we have to employ such incompetent medical staff?”

The man shook his head, trying to get rid of the smug smile crossing his face. “If she was really that bad, you wouldn’t be able to complain right now, would you?”  
“Yeah,” he huffed. “She excels in her job so much, she even kept Reiss’ man alive.”

“So that we can interrogate him and find out why Reiss’ remaining assassins’ club has been trying to hunt you down for the last few weeks.” He removed his hands from his pockets and leaned against the white metal footboard of the bed.

“I already told you, I know exactly why.” Levi tried to sit up again but dropped the idea in a few seconds. He snorted and looked up at his boss. “I don’t need to interrogate him, I need to kill him. Most of Reiss’ men are either dead or nowhere near anymore, there’s not much of them left I tell you. I’ll just get rid of them one by one, won’t take long.”

Erwin heaved a small, slightly irritated sigh. “And I assume you still insist that they stayed because of Kenny.”

Levi didn’t say anything. He knew the man already knew what he was thinking.

“Levi, your uncle was reported dead years ago even before we took over the Reiss family’s last facilities. Ever since there’s been no sign of him. Nothing. My sources dug deep, believe me, but they haven’t heard a word about him.”

“That’s because he doesn’t want your sources to hear from him. He wants us to underestimate him, and you’re underestimating him big time right now. But I don’t. I know the way he thinks, I know his methods. I am 100% positive that he’s behind these attacks. Let me handle him and his men.”

“If I remember correctly, these were your exact words before you went after him and ended up here again.” Erwin took a short pause to calm his voice. “I shouldn’t have let you go after a bunch of hitmen alone in the first place.”

Levi shook his head. “I already told you, I don’t want any of our man on this case. Not one of them, it’s too dangerous. I’ll put an end to the attacks alone, just let me do it my way. Please.”

“Fine. You get one more week. But if you run out of time or get hospitalized again, I’ll intervene.”

He acknowledged his boss’ words with a curt nod.

“Good,” Erwin straightened up. “I have to go now, I just wanted to step by and see if you’re – miraculously – still alive. Have some rest and do what your doctor says, will you?”

Levi swallowed his words and groaned at him as an answer.

*

In the middle of the night, Levi was woken up by a scream followed by a loud thump coming from the corridor. “Let me go!” the woman complained, her words getting louder and louder as they were getting closer to his room. He could barely grab his gun from the bedside table, the assassin already kicked in his door, holding Dr. Ral in front of him with one hand, clutching a surgical scalpel in the other.

“Drop the gun or I’ll cut her!” he shouted at Levi and pushed the tiny blade against the woman’s throat so that it carved a thin red line into her skin. “You wouldn’t be able to aim with your left hand anyway, and I’m sure you wouldn’t want to hit the poor doctor by accident. So, put that gun down and let me see your hands! Come here unarmed and I’ll let her go.”

Levi could not suppress a smug smile. If Kenny sent such an amateur after him, he had probably started to run out of men already. “Okay then,” he said calmly, his voice loud and clear. He started to move his hand slowly, keeping eye contact with his attacker the whole time. Then suddenly, just before the gun touched the bedside table again, he grabbed it with his right hand in just a fraction of a second. He could hear his stiches tearing apart as he reached forward, feeling like his arm was being ripped out. He pulled the trigger and a moment later the man was lying on the floor, an almost perfectly round puddle of blood spreading from under his head.

“Fuck!” Petra screamed and jumped away from the body. “You could have shot me!”

“But I didn’t,” Levi moaned in a hoarse voice. He dropped the gun on the floor as carefully as he could and fell on his knees next to it. He could barely move his right arm, and the pain in his shoulder was becoming unbearable. “You’re welcome.”

“Well, yeah, I guess we’re even now,” Petra muttered with an eyeroll and hurried to the man to fix his stitches. She cut off his bandages and pushed a clean roll of gauze into the wound.

Levi cried out.

“Oh, yes, I’m sorry. I almost forgot,” she shook her head and reached for a syringe with one hand, still holding the now almost half-red roll with the other.  
With a swift movement the man caught her forearm. “Don’t knock me out this time, would you?”

“Don’t worry,” she gave him a sly half-smile, injected the anesthetic, and started to remove the ripped stitches from his shoulder carefully.

Levi wanted to complain about not feeling the painkillers kicking in yet, but he gritted his teeth and stayed quiet. He turned his head slightly to look at the woman’s surprisingly composed face. She didn’t seem like someone who had just got out of a hostage situation at all. She looked calm and was treating his wound with stable hands. “So, do your patients hold a scalpel to your throat often?” he asked but regretted it immediately. Saying it out loud, the question sounded like the most awkward icebreaker ever.

She shook her head slightly, keeping her hazel eyes focused on his wound. “No, not really,” she answered casually, like he had just asked her about the weather.  
“Of course,” Levi acknowledged with a nod and turned away, letting her work in silence. He started to feel the painkillers again, although, as promised, they didn’t make him pass out this time. He waited for her to finish with a dizzy head. Maybe it was because of the drugs, but it felt like she stitched him again in no time.

She ordered a robust, male nurse to take the assassin’s body down to the morgue and walked back to the man, who was still sitting on the floor, staring in front of himself blankly. “You should be fine now.” She grabbed his unwounded shoulder and helped him up to the bed gently. Even though he wasn’t completely dazed, he relaxed and let her move his body. She put him to bed and tuck him in like a child.

“Do you regret it?” he looked up at her. He felt that the question was pretty inappropriate, but his curiosity was stronger than his manners.

“Do I regret what?” she raised her thin eyebrows slightly.

“Saving him,” he said in a low voice. “He almost killed you.”

She shook her head without hesitation. “That doesn’t matter. I would never regret saving anyone’s life, no matter what they do afterwards. I’m giving them a second chance, it’s on them what they do with it.” Her voice sounded just as determined as earlier, but this time it was somehow softer.

He nodded.

“Now go back to sleep and have some rest. You’ve just seen what happens to the patients who don’t obey my orders.”

“Hahh,” he snorted a half-laugh, even though he was absolutely sure that the woman wasn’t joking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more fandom-related content check out [my tumblr](https://flora-howell.tumblr.com/)  
> For original work visit [my inkitt](https://www.inkitt.com/florahowell)


	2. We will never be even

“It took some time for that wound to heal, you know,” Levi complained as Hange was removing the old stitches from his shoulder in a particularly barbaric way, alongside some tiny pieces of his skin and flesh. “I would be thrilled if you didn’t reopen it.”

“As much as I want to see you trying to express any kind of positive emotion, I’m not going to go easy on you. I’m terribly sorry.” They shook their head. “You know very well that I’m no more than a mere pathologist, and as such, I’m not used to my patients talking back. You had the chance to attend suture removal at Dr. Ral, but you refused. Now bear the consequences of your decision.”

“You’re my doctor, not her.” Levi looked away so that he didn’t have to see his shoulder being teared apart. “She treated me last time only because it was an emergency, and you were out of town.”

“Aw, did you miss me?” Hange cooed and pushed a piece of wet gauze against the tiny red dots on the man’s shoulder.

Levi’s eyes teared up. “Oh, please,” he moaned as the disinfectant burned down to his bone.

“Well then, you may not be happy to hear that I have to go back to Marley tonight. So, if you get yourself almost-killed in the next couple of weeks, you’ll have to put up with the gentle hands of Dr. Ral again.”

“Tch,” he snorted. “I wouldn’t want to interrupt her. She must be extremely busy saving the lives of all rival gang members.”

“I certainly hope she’s not,” Hange chuckled. “Especially that she’s up in Pediatrics the whole month.”

“What? I thought she works here in the company’s private wing,” Levi frowned.

Hange shook their head. “No, she just helps out sometimes when we lack personnel.”

“Is that normal?” he furrowed his brows. “I thought Erwin was too paranoid to employ outsiders.”

“Well, I guess our ingenious boss always finds a way to have a hold on people.” They looked around like they wanted to make sure that no one could hear them in the completely empty room and leaned uncomfortably close to him. “You didn’t hear it from me, but word has it she owes Erwin quite a great deal. Whether it’s money or some favors; nobody seems to know. Juicy, isn’t it?”

Levi rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. Everyone owes Erwin in this fucking city.”

“That’s a fact,” Hange nodded. “But it’s stills strange to hear so shady things about someone like her. I mean she’s such a tiny, innocent-looking woman, isn’t she?”  
“She sure is tiny,” Levi muttered.

“I thought you would like her.” Hange raised a brow, a sly half smile lifting one corner of their mouth. “You should be happy to finally meet a woman shorter than you.”

Levi turned to his colleague but didn’t say a thing – he felt like his face spoke for him without words.

“Anyway, I’ll tell her you miss her,” Hange chuckled and patted his wounded shoulder in the least gentle way possible. “Now, there you go. All done. A fresh, stitch-less scar – seems like a nice addition to your collection.”

The man suppressed a painful moan and shot them an angry stare. “You really want me to drop you as my doc, don’t you?”

“I do think you’d be better off with Dr. Ral, yes,” they shrugged and turned away to clean up their equipment that was scattered across the wide metal table on their right.

Levi hopped off the examination bed and reached for his shirt and suit jacket. “Sorry, but it won’t be so easy to get rid of me.”

“Oh really?” Hange turned to him with an especially irritating know-it-all face of theirs. “So, the rumor I heard about you planning on another suicide mission soon must be false, right?”

“Where do you hear these things?” Levi frowned. “You joined a mob wives book club, or what?”

“You would be surprised,” the doctor winked in a particularly vexing way and handed him a piece of paper before he could make an escape.

“What the fuck is that?” The man glanced down at the address scribbled on the green post-it.

“Some help, just in case. If things don’t go as planned tonight,” Hange shrugged. “Even though you’re a pain in my ass as a patient, I don’t want you to die so young. That would be tragic. Plus, you’re my less irritating colleague so far.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Levi slid the paper into his pocket, thanked them with a curt nod and left the room as fast as possible, before Hange had the chance to think of any more questions about his evening plans.

*

“Holly mother of Molly! What’s wrong with you? Do you have a death-wish or what?” Petra gasped when she saw Levi standing at her backdoor. She felt like she was punched in the stomach. The half-conscious man was holding onto the door frame with one bloody hand, pushing a soaked piece of cloth against a brand-new shot wound in his side with the other.

“Oh fuck,” he looked up at her. “I’m sorry.”

“You must be kidding me,” she shook her head and pulled herself together in a second. She helped the man inside, hoping that none of her neighbors saw the thrashed gang member showing up in her backyard in the middle of the night.

She laid him down on the couch and ran to the kitchen to get her bag and a bottle of whisky. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have anything at home that would be strong enough, so drink approximately three shots and bite down on this.” She handed him a bandage roll and looked him up and down to see how bad the situation was.  
“Are fucking kidding me? I…” he started but the woman’s sharp voice cut him off.

“Do it! And don’t pass out!” she ordered and cleaned the wound as he complied, probably causing enough pain to convince him he’d better listen to her. She frowned at the deep, bloody hole in the men’s side. It was a wonder he hadn’t bled out before he made it to her house. She removed the bullet and stopped the bleeding with quick, practiced hands, trying to ignore his muffled cries and moans. She closed the wound and treated his injuries in no time, remaining silently focused all along. She wanted to get over with it as fast as she could, because she had no idea how much strength he had left. She was praying for him not to lose consciousness.

Once she was done, she sat down on the floor, leaned against the couch, and let out a breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding. She reached for a more or less clean cloth to wipe the blood off her hands and tried to calm herself down. She turned her head slightly to see the man panting on the couch. “Are you alive?”

“Yes,” he moaned. “Thank you.”

“Good,” she sighed and reached for the whisky bottle to sooth her nerves with a long sip. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“I’m sorry for coming here.” His voice was hoarse and unusually weak. “I didn’t have any other choice. I couldn’t go to the hospital and Hange is out of town.”

“It’s okay. They warned me that you might show up.” She took another sip and put the bottle down next to the couch so that he could reach it as well.

“Yeah, well, good for you. I didn’t know that the emergency address they gave me was yours.”

“Would you have come here if you knew?” she asked, even though she suspected the answer.

“No, of course not.” Judging by the painful sound he made, he tried to shake his head. “I didn’t want to put you through danger. I’ll leave as soon as possible.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but that won’t be very soon. You’re basically half dead. You haven’t even recovered from your last shot wound properly, but you already have a fresh one. Are you even real? You’ve lost an immense amount of blood, have several minor injuries and it would be a real miracle if you didn’t have any internal bleeding. I’d be honestly surprised if you could even stand up.” She had to put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “It wasn’t a dare! You stay where you are!”

“Are you deaf or something?” The man heaved a weary sigh. “Look. I’m grateful that you pumped some life back into me again, and that’s exactly why I should leave this place as soon as possible. There’s a madman trying to hunt me down, and he won’t hesitate to get rid of anyone getting in his way. He’ll find me in no time.”

“How?” she turned to him. “Hange’s the only one who knows that you’re here, right?”

Levi nodded.

“Good. They won’t give you away for sure, and I don’t think anyone else would look for you here. You should have at least two or three days to recover, which you need badly, believe me.”

She saw on the man’s face that he was contemplating her words. He must have been very exhausted. “I don’t want a repeat of last time,” he muttered.

“It’s your choice,” she shrugged, knowing that she convinced him already. “But one more attack like that, and you bite it for sure.”

*

When Levi woke up, yet again, he had no idea where he was for a second. It was kind of a déjà vu, but this time the unfamiliar place was a way more pleasant sight than the sterile hospital room. He could vaguely remember using all of his remaining energy to move from Petra’s couch to the softest and most comfortable bed he’s ever slept in. He had probably passed out in less than a millisecond after that.

He looked around in the small, square room. The composition of the few pieces of modern, bright white furniture and the light peach walls were pretty and somehow calming. He glanced out of the tiny window to see how much he’d slept, but all he could tell that it was morning – he wasn’t sure which day though. He wouldn’t have been too surprised to find out that he’d spent more than thirty hours in bed. He was suspiciously well-rested and didn’t feel an immense amount of pain either, however, the latter could be the result of Dr. Ral’s generally excessive use of painkillers.

He decided the best source of information about his condition was the doctor. He climbed out of bed and stumbled to the combined kitchen and living-room, where the woman was making something with an interesting chemical smell. “What are you cooking, meth?” he frowned and carefully sat down to the round table near the kitchen counter.

“You’re very funny,” she answered in a flat voice. She glanced into the large pot on the stove, grimaced, and put the lid on. She frowned and reached for the yellow piece of paper lying on the counter. “It’s supposed to be a broth, but I’m pretty sure I messed up something.”

Levi’s eyebrows went up. “Are you cooking a broth?”

“Well, apparently not.” She shook her head and switched the stove off. “I’ll just order something, is that right with you?”

“Sure,” he nodded and couldn’t suppress a follow-up question. “Did you try to cook that for me?”

“Yes, of course” she answered absent-mindedly while searching for her phone in her bag. “I’ve never been a very good cook – or any kind of cook, really. But after more than thirty hours of sleep you need proper nutrition, and all I have in the fridge is a can of pickles and some low-fat yoghurt. So, I thought I’d give my mom’s beef broth a try, but I guess one’s cooking skills don’t improve one bit if you, well, don’t cook at all.”

The man suddenly didn’t know how to feel about her words. Apparently, he was so deprived of affection that the smallest caring gesture managed to stop him in his tracks. He ignored the almost strange, warm feeling spreading through his chest.

“I think it should be fine. The delivery boy won’t see the bloody couch from the door, right?” She frowned at the heavily stained piece of furniture.

“No, I don’t think he will,” the man shook his head, not even looking at the door or the couch to see if she’s right.

“So?” she turned to him with her phone in her hand.

“So what?” he looked up at her, confused. 

“Chinese?”

“Chinese,” he nodded.

Chinese was a good choice. He hadn’t even realized how hungry he was until he opened the stuffed box of noodles. “Do you have a fork? I can’t eat with those,” he jerked his head towards the chopsticks on the table.

“Sure,” she put the cutlery in front of him and joined him at the table. “I hope it’s okay. They’re one of my favorite Chinese places. Their food is usually pretty good.”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” he muttered with a half-full mouth.

“Great,” she said with the first genuine smile Levi has seen on her face and started to eat her noodles with some impressive chopstick skills.

“Are you order from that place a lot?”

“Yeah, well, I spend most of my time in the hospital, so I don’t have much left to cook at home.” She looked at the now empty pot in the sink. “As you could see.”

He looked up at her. “You’re really dedicated to your job, aren’t you?” he asked in the softest voice he had heard from himself in a while.

“Of course, I am. Why else would I accommodate an injured thug in my house?”

“Fair enough,” he nodded. “Well then, the injured thug is pretty lucky that you have this devotion. He’s also grateful and promises to make it up to you later.”

“I wouldn’t want you to find yourself in such a huge debt,” she gave a small laugh and stood up to grab herself a glass of water. “Would you like something to drink?”  
“Do you still have that whisky?”

“I’d happily pour you some, but I don’t think it would be a good idea,” she shook her head. “I managed to sneak you some more effective stuff from the hospital, so you shouldn’t drink alcohol until that’s out of your system.”

“Oh, I see. So, that’s why I feel so–“ he started but suddenly couldn’t find the fitting word to finish the sentence.

“How do you feel?” she turned off the tap and glanced back at him.

“Calm,” he said finally, staring into his noodles.

“Yes, it’s probably that,” she nodded and sat back to the table to finish her meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more fandom-related content check out [my tumblr](https://flora-howell.tumblr.com/)  
> For original work visit [my inkitt](https://www.inkitt.com/florahowell)


	3. Soften

“What on Earth did you do to your shoulder?” Petra demanded as she was examining Levi. She frowned at the ugly scar on the man’s right shoulder. She remembered closing the wound a couple of weeks ago and knew for certain that she wasn’t the one leaving it like that. “Did you want to avoid me so much that you removed your stitches yourself?”

“No, that wasn’t my doing,” Levi glanced at the tiny red dots.

She turned away for a second to roll her eyes and reach for a pair of scissors. “Whose doing was it then? Edward Scissorhands’?” She couldn’t help but smile at her own lame joke.

“Almost,” he shook his head. “It was Hange. They are my doctor, remember?”

She raised a brow. “Hange’s a pathologist. Do you know what that means?”

“Of course, I do. And I’m already dead inside, so it’s a perfect match.” He allowed himself a dry half-smile.

“Okay. Well, I can’t do anything about that, but I think your body will continue to live at least,” she sighed. She looked the man up and down one more time before removing her mask and gloves. “I mean, of course, if you’re willing to make a bit of a change in your current lifestyle.”

“I’ll do my best,” Levi said and reached for the white T-shirt hanging over the footboard of the bed.

“I’ll just pretend I believe you,” she nodded and turned away to put her equipment back to the medical bag on the small white table next to the door. “But you should know that it was mostly luck that you survived. By some miracle you don’t have internal bleeding. Plus, you heal pretty fast. Faster than anyone I’ve ever seen, really.”

“I have good genetics.”

“Yes, I can see that,” she muttered and glanced back to have a quick, less professional look at the man’s upper body before he put his shirt back on.

“So, can I go back to work now?”

She turned back to him, hands on her hips. “Are you kidding me? I’ve just told you that your gunshot wound and numerous other injures probably won’t kill you, not that they’ve magically disappeared like that,” she snapped her fingers.

“Okay, I’m sorry,” he held up his hands in a placating gesture and put his shirt back on. “No work yet. Understood.”

Petra couldn’t decide if the man’s unexpected change of attitude should make her surprised or suspicious. She decided for the latter. “Are you being so cooperative because you’re planning to sneak out on a secret mission or something?”

He cocked his head slightly to the side. “It wouldn’t be a secret mission if I told you, would it?”

Petra knitter her brows. “Are you trying to provoke me?” she asked with a half-angry, half-worried expression on her face.

He shrugged. “What can I say? I’ve been in bed for days. I’m bored.”

“Well, I’m sorry that staying alive is so boring,” she scoffed. “What can I do to entertain you?”

“Maybe, you could give in to the provocation,” he said in such a monotonous voice that she just couldn’t be certain that he was joking.

She just rolled her eyes and turned back to the table to make sure she put all her equipment away. “Do you think I get provoked easily?” She smirked down at her bag as she zipped it up.

“No, but I know that I managed to get on your nerves before.” He waited for her to agree, but all she gave him was a questioning look, so he continued. “When we first met. In the hospital.”

“True,” she sighed. “That was a fun ride.”

He glanced down at his hands fiddling with the bottom of his shirt. “Speaking of, I’m sorry about that. I’m not a very nice person generally, and I can be an even bigger jerk if things don’t go as planned.”

“You don’t say?” she let out a small laugh.

He shook his head. “Not everyone is a such a Good Samaritan like you.” Even though there wasn’t any audible sarcasm in his voice, she could sense it.

“Am I a Good Samaritan?” she turned to him with a little smirk.

He raised a brow. “Are you not?”

Petra shrugged and sat down on the white chair in front of the table. “I guess. I mean, I save lives. That should be a good thing, don’t you think?”

“You save lives while working for a mob boss, that should be a less good thing, don’t you think?” he asked carefully.

“No,” she shook her head slightly. “I truly believe that all human lives are valuable, regardless their… boss.”

She expected him to make a sarcastic comment about her naiveté or mention the assassin who almost killed them both a couple of weeks ago, but he didn’t. “Even mine?” was all he asked instead.

“Even yours,” she said quickly.

He glanced down and nodded. “So, is that why you’re working for Erwin? Because the gang provides you with a continual source of injured people that you can save?”

He looked back up at her with a slight smirk in the corner of his mouth.

“Sure, that could be a reason.” She returned the smirk. “But I also owe him some money. He paid for my school.”

“Really?” he raised his brows. “Turns out Erwin is also a Good Samaritan after all. Didn’t see that coming.”

“Well, actually, he paid for it because he shut down the club where I used to work at the beginning of college. There were limited employment opportunities in Eldia at the time, so I went to him to complain, and he just agreed to finance my studies if I work for his company a couple of years after graduation.”

“As I said, a Good Samaritan.” He was nodding with an almost-smile on his face. “What is more, the Best Samaritan.”

“What about you?” she passed back the ball back to him.

“What about me?”

“There must be a reason why you’re working for Erwin.”

“Well, yes, there is, but I wouldn’t bore you with the details.”

“I’m almost sure I wouldn’t find those details boring at all,” she said. “But of course, you tell me as much as you want to. I’m not interrogating you. I’m just curious.”

He nodded seriously. “Erwin appeared at a point of my life where I needed, so to say, guidance. He helped me to get rid of some bad habits, bad people, and offered me a job. There’s not much more to it, really.”

Petra was still curious about the probably exciting details, but she didn’t want to push him too hard. If that was all he wanted to say about the matter, then that was it. Something told her that with those two short sentences the man already shared way more information about himself than he usually did. “I see,” she nodded and swallowed all follow-up questions.

“Yeah,” he continued, for her surprise. “I mean, it’s not the best job in the world, but there’s opportunity for promotion, the money is good – nice Christmas bonus, paid holidays, if you have any. I even have a country club membership. Of course, there’s always room for improvement.”

Petra couldn’t repress a small laugh. She found the man’s dry humor surprisingly entertaining. It was hilarious how apathetically he was able to say all that nonsense. “Yes, it’s hard to enjoy your country club membership if there’s a group of nameless assassins trying to murder you.”

“Now that you mention it, I should get rid of them before Saturday brunch,” he shrugged.

“No, but seriously,” she frowned. “Please, tell me you have some kind of a plan at least.”

He looked her in the eye and nodded. His face suddenly became expressionless in a different way – if that was even possible. “Don’t worry, I won’t show up in your backyard half-dead again.”

“That’s not it,” she shook her head. “It just seems like your current strategy haven’t been really working out so far. Maybe, you need some backup. Why are you doing this alone?”

“God, you sound just like Erwin,” Levi rolled his eyes. “I don’t want anyone getting involved in this, it’s too dangerous. I just have to regain my strength, and I’ll get rid of him, that’s it.”

“Him?” she repeated with a confused frown on her face. “You know who’s behind the attacks?”

“I have a suspect, yes,” he nodded. “I think it’s my uncle.”

Petra raised a brow. She knew that the man was a bit paranoid, but suspecting a family member behind the attacks was a bit too much even from him. “Why would your uncle want to kill you?”

“Kenny was one of those abovementioned bad people I had to get rid of before I started working at the company, and we didn’t really manage to part on good terms.”

“Kenny Ackerman is your uncle?” Petra’s eyes went wide for a second, but her surprise was gone as fast as it had come. “Oh, now that I think about it, I could have guessed. I thought he was dead.”

The man looked at her as if she told him that she was murdering puppies as a hobby. “And how the fuck do you know that bastard?”

“I don't really know him, I just know who he is. He used to be my boss. In the club that I mentioned earlier,” she explained before he misunderstood the situation.

“Kenny managed a strip club for Reiss,” he muttered and showed the most intense emotion Petra had ever seen on his face, surprise. “Were you a stripper?!”

“I was a waitress, you idiot!” she said quickly.

“So, you never…” he stopped in the middle of the sentence.

“No! No, of course not,” she protested vehemently.

“Okay, okay I’m sorry. Just for you to know, I wouldn’t have any problem with that… I mean… If that’s what someone chooses as a profession, I …” he started, but they were lucky enough that his beeping phone saved them from that conversation. He reached into his pocket for the device and glanced down at it.

“Who’s that?” Petra asked, trying to hide the concern in her voice. The almost maniac expression that appeared on the man’s face after he’d read the message scared her. He looked like a hound on a scent. “What does it say?”

He hopped off the bed, not looking up from his phone for a second. “I have to go,” he muttered the exact words she’d been afraid to hear.

Petra leapt up from her chair and jumped in front of the door. “No, wait!” she exclaimed and carefully placed her hands on his chest to stop him.

Levi halted. He shot an irritated look at her hands on him and glanced back up at her face. He didn’t say a word, but he looked at her like one looks at someone who’s playing a particularly dangerous game.

“Can I see that?” she let him go and held out one hand, but he didn’t move. She sighed, looked him in the eye and continued in a calm yet firm manner. “Levi, please, give me that phone and tell me in what kind of suicide mission you would like to participate this time!”

He remained silent, but his gaze softened. Now he looked like a grounded teenager angry with his mom.

“You’re being incredibly stupid right now, but you see that too, don’t you?” She shook her head. “Don’t worry, this inconsiderate and impulsive behavior might just be the side-effect of the painkillers you’ve been given in the past few days.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said and handed her his phone, not breaking eye-contact for a second, his face expressionless once again. “I’m inconsiderate and impulsive regardless how much you drug me.”

She looked down at the short text that contained nothing else but an address. More precisely, the address of the North Eldia Cemetery and the exact location of a plot in it. “This is a painfully obvious trap; you see that right?” she held up the device.

He nodded. “Yes, and a trail that I can follow.”

“Levi, please, don’t be so bold. Haven’t you learned from the last two times you almost died? Call Erwin at least!” she begged him. “You’ll need backup.”

“I told you already, I don’t want anyone included. It’s too dangerous.”

“Too dangerous? You’re walking straight into a trap!” She could hear her own voice getting more and more hysterical. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you go.”

He sighed and shook his head. “No, I’m sorry. I really am, but you don’t leave me any other choice here.”

“What? No! Fuck you!” Petra shouted when she realized what he was about to do, but she was too late. He already pulled his hand out of her bag with a syringe in it. She tried to escape but he held her tight. He pushed the needle deep into her neck and she lost consciousness less than a second later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more fandom-related content check out [my tumblr](https://flora-howell.tumblr.com/)  
> For original work visit [my inkitt](https://www.inkitt.com/florahowell)


	4. Not okay

As Petra slowly regained consciousness, the memory of how she had lost it filled her mind again and made her red-hot angry. “That motherfucking bastard!” she muttered and jumped out of bed. She ran to her purse and hastily looked for her phone to inform Erwin about what had happened, probably making the man’s ears bleed with the slightly uncontrolled pitch and volume of her voice.

After they hung up, she reached for her keys and ran to her car like a maniac. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious, so she could only hope that she called their boss in time, and Levi was not lying in that plot mentioned in the text yet. She took a deep breath so that her blood pressure wouldn’t make her explode before she could start the car, turned the key, and stepped on the gas like a getaway driver with freshly stolen cash in the trunk.

Even though she was driving way over the speed limit, it took her a while to get from her southern suburban neighborhood to the north of town. By the time she stopped in front of the large gates of the cemetery, Erwin and his team were already there, wearing fake police uniforms, blocking all entrances. The presence of the men of the company calmed her for a second, but only until she saw them carrying a body bag, ironically, out of the cemetery.

“Mr. Smith,” she hurried to the man standing next to one of the road-barriers. He didn’t seem upset at all. Hopefully, that wasn’t the sing of him being a cold-blooded psychopath unable to feel, but rather meant that he didn’t lose one of his best men in the past few hours.

“Dr. Ral, I didn’t expect you to come,” he raised a brow slightly. “As you can see, we have already taken care of the situation.”

“Yes, I-,” she paused, looking at the big black bag with a concerned frown on her face. “I can see that.”

He looked down at her with an almost-smile in the corners of his thin lips. “I assume you’re worried that Levi’s the one in there, but don’t worry, he’s fine – or at least alive for sure.”

She couldn’t help but let out a silent sigh of relief. She furrowed her brows and glanced at the dead body again. “Who is that then? What happened to them?”

“Well, as you expected, that poor man with two others were here to set Levi up, but they failed miserably,” the man explained in such a casual manner like he was talking about a picnic he had had on the weekend. “We haven’t been able to identify any of them, though. We’ll question the two survivors once they regain consciousness.”

Petra was trying to process the man’s words, but her still slightly dazed mind had a hard time fitting the pieces of the story together. “And how on Earth did Levi manage to take down all three men by himself?”

“Apparently, there was a secret military base under the old chapel, probably abandoned after the Great War. Most of it had been already ruined, but the tunnel system under the cemetery is still available, and the attackers planned on using it as their hide-out. Levi somehow found that out and crept on them one by one.”

“Really?” Petra suddenly felt herself in a shitty crime story with a poorly written twist at the end. “Did you also know about those tunnels?”

The man shook his head. “No, there’s no sign of them in the company’s underground maps, I already checked. They must be more than a hundred years old.”  
“How did Levi know about them then?”

“I don’t know, nobody has dared to talk to him yet. He wasn’t in a too talkative mood when we got here, and it seems like he’s been having a rather long, sentimental moment since then,” he jerked his head towards a distant point of the cemetery. “He led my team to the bodies and went on to gloom over there after that.”

Petra had to squint a bit to see him. “Are you sure he’s alright?”

Erwin shrugged. “He’s breathing and able to kill a man. That’s more than enough for me.”

Petra took a small step away and resisted the urge to shoot the man a judging glare. “Well, I think I’ll try to talk to him.”

“Good luck, Dr. Ral,” he scoffed. “If you can, please, tell him that I’ll call as soon as we managed to identify the attackers. I’d like to believe that these were the last of them.”

“Yes, hopefully,” she agreed. “Thank you for your help, Mr. Smith.”

Erwin nodded and ordered his men to start removing the barricades. Even though the cemetery was at the edge of town with not many still living people around, they had probably attracted way more attention that he wanted to already.

Petra turned to the entrance and took a couple of hesitant steps forward. She had no idea what Levi was doing in there all alone, standing still like a statue, but she was sure that he wasn’t in a particularly chatty mood. Still, she wanted to talk to him. As she was getting closer, she felt her blood-pressure rising again, but now she was more nervous than angry. She approached the man cautiously. She stopped next to him and waited a couple of minutes for him to start talking, but he didn’t even turn to look at her. It seemed like he was in a trance.

She was already wondering whether he noticed her at all, but after what felt like an eternity he finally said: “You called Erwin.”

“I called Erwin,” she repeated silently.

He heaved a small, sharp sigh. “I told you that I don’t want anyone else involved.” Even though he was talking in a flat voice, Petra could sense the frustration in his words.

“And I told you not to come here,” she answered carefully.

“I had a plan.”

“Yes, I know that now. But you could have mentioned that earlier, you know.”

“I knew you would want to come with me, and I didn’t want to put you through any more danger.”

“And yet I’m here.”

“And yet you’re here,” he finally turned to look at her, his face showing no emotion at all. He quickly looked her up and down. “You woke up too soon. I should have used the whole stuff, but I wasn’t sure about the right amount.”

“It’s because you have absolutely no medical qualifications. Did you even have any idea what you injected me with?” She tried to keep her voice calm.

“No, but I assumed it was harmless once it was there for me. Because it was, right? In case you have to knock me out again.”

“Not everything’s always about you,” she shook her head, but he was right.

“So, do you just normally store sedatives in a syringe?”

“Well, sometimes it happens, yes,” she lied confidently.

“Whatever,” he muttered, put his hands in his pockets, and turned away from her again.

“You don’t have to believe me. But you know what?” she began but cut herself off as she followed his gaze to the black marble headstone in front of him. It had the name Kenny Ackerman written on it with golden letters. She didn’t know what to say at first, all she could squeeze out was a silent: “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “It seems like I was wrong. The old man is really dead.”

Petra was confused. She could suddenly feel so many questions lining up in her head that she didn’t even know which one to ask first. “Did you know that this was here when you got the-”

“No,” he shook his head before she could finish.

She looked at the man, trying to find out how he was feeling exactly. She couldn’t decide whether he was frustrated because his uncle was dead, or because he had been wrong about him trying to hunt him down. She took a step closer and looked for a sign of any emotion, but nothing. No grief, no anger, nothing. She had no choice but to ask him. “Would you like to say goodbye maybe or-”

“Can you give me a lift home? I don’t want to get in a cab like this,” he cut her off again and looked down at his dirty shirt with traces of blood here and there.  
“Sure,” she nodded and didn’t attempt to ask another question. She remained silent the whole ride, only asking him for directions. She started to feel more and more concerned about him. In the past couple of hours, he had seriously injured two men, killed one, and found out that his uncle wasn’t the one who was trying to kill him, because the man – with whom he obviously had quiet an unusual relationship – was dead. He must have felt something. Something bad, hopefully.

She stopped the car in front of the modern apartment complex at the edge of downtown and turned to the man carefully. She didn’t dare to say a word, though. She thought it would be best to wait for him to start the conversation – if he even wanted to.

“Thank you,” he said quietly, but didn’t move. He was just sitting still in the car staring down at his hands clasped in his lap.

Petra didn’t answer just nodded with a slight smile on her face. She was looking at him like one looks at a timebomb. Even though she still couldn’t identify a single emotion on his face, he didn’t seem okay. She didn’t want to leave him there like that. “Levi?” she asked carefully.

“Hm?” he looked up.

“Do you need anything?” she asked but wanted to reformulate the question immediately. “I mean, would you like to… talk maybe?”

He was staring at her for a couple of moments, contemplating. “Would you like some coffee? I have a new espresso machine. It’s pretty good.”

“Yes, that would be great, thank you,” she nodded and followed him upstairs.

“Do you mind if I take a quick shower?” he asked as they entered the tenth-floor apartment and toed off his shoes right next to the door. She did the same without him having to say anything. “I really want to wash all this shit off; it won’t take long.”

“Yeah, sure,” she nodded.

“Make yourself at home,” he jerked his head towards the small dining table behind the couch, and less than a minute later he disappeared behind one of the tall, white doors.

She sat down and looked around. Levi’s place looked exactly the way she would have imagined it. It was simple, spacious, and furnished in a modern and functional way. The floor-to-ceiling windows offered a spectacular, probably pretty expensive view of Eldia’s business quarter and made Petra feel like she was standing in the middle of a double page spread in an interior design magazine.

The combined kitchen and living room was so neat and clean that it seemed like nobody had ever lived there. She wondered whether the place was so sterile because he was such a clean freak, or as a result of him spending most of his time at work. “This looks exactly like a murderous psychopath’s apartment in the movies,” she thought but kept it to herself.

“Nice place,” she said instead when he returned a couple of minutes later. Lucky for her, she hadn’t got her coffee yet, because she would have definitely choked on it when he stepped out of the bathroom in nothing else but a pair of loose joggers, drying his semi-wet hair with a towel.

“Thank you,” he muttered and switched on the indeed impressive-looking espresso machine on the kitchen counter. “Double shot with just enough milk and sugar so that it won’t kill you?”

She nodded with a surprised half-smile. “How did you know?”

“You’re a doctor, aren’t you?” he scoffed with something like a smirk on his face.

“Fair enough.”

“Just kidding. I’m a very observant man,” he bragged and prepared her drink with the smooth and practiced hands of a professional barista. “Shall I make them Kentucky?”

“Oh, yes, please,” she nodded with no hesitation, completely ignoring the fact that she would have to drive home later.

“I hope it’s not too strong,” he said as he placed the white mug on the table and sat down next to her with his own cup in his hands. “I honestly have no idea about the official recipe. I just usually make it stiff.

She took a sip and shook her head as the hot beverage burned down her throat. She felt the bourbon getting to her head immediately. “It’s perfect, thank you.”  
He nodded. “I don’t want you to believe that I’m trying to get you drunk.”

“So, you’re not?”

“I would never.” He took a sip as well. “But of course, you can go wild if you want to. I wouldn’t blame you after the past few days.”

“Would you like to get drunk too?” she asked with a frown as she watched him chug his burning hot drink like a shot.

He put down the now empty cup, thought for a second, and shrugged. “I kind of always do.”

“Understandable,” she nodded and took another, bigger sip. It crossed her mind that maybe she should take it slower but ignored the thought. She had no desire to listen to what the responsible voice in her head had to say about moderate drinking at that moment. It did convince her about something else though. “You were right about the sedative, you know,” she admitted. “I was keeping it there in case you go rouge again.”

He looked at her with absolutely no expression on his face. “I know.”

“I didn’t want to use it, unless I really had to.”

“Yes,” he said softly. “I know that too.”

She looked down at her half-full mug and ran her finger around its rim a couple times. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, I get it. It’s not that I’m the most trustworthy person in the world. You were just being cautious, that’s always good.”

“Cautious?” she repeated. “Like you this afternoon?”

“I knew what I was doing.”

“Yes, I get it now,” Petra burst out a bit louder than she’d intended. “But how did you even know about those tunnels? How were you so sure that those men would be hiding there?”

“Even though I haven’t been there for a while, I know that place pretty well. The tunnels were an obvious choice. The minute I got that text I was sure it wasn’t Kenny behind the attacks. He would have never tried to set me up in such an amateur way. So, I figured I was dealing with less dangerous idiots.”

“But how do you know the cemetery so well?”

He hesitated for a moment. “My mother is buried there too.” His voice was suddenly lower.

She wasn’t able to keep up her interrogative style after that. “Well, you could have mentioned that before running off, you know. I thought you were just walking into a trap mindlessly. You got me really worried.”

“I already told you. I didn’t want you to come with me.” He stood up, seemingly to refill their empty cups, but Petra knew that he was just trying to escape.

Of course, she wasn’t going to drop it so easily. She turned to face him. “And the only way you could achieve that was to knock me out and run away?”

He concentrated on the coffees way more than he actually had to. “I’m sorry about that. My people skills are not the best,” he muttered to the counter in front of him.  
“Cleary,” she sighed.

“Look, I’m sorry.” He joined her at the table again. He pulled his chair a bit closer and looked her straight in the eye. It seemed like the words he wanted to say already made him slightly uncomfortable. “Even though I was trying to protect you, I shouldn’t have drugged you with your own sedative and run off. You’ve done a lot for me in the past few weeks, and believe it or not, I’m grateful for that. Nobody has shown so much care and concern for me in a very long time. I should appreciate you more.”

“It’s not about the appreciation,” she shook her head. “It’s like you didn’t even care about yourself. As you said, I’ve worked a lot on keeping you alive lately. It’s not me that you should appreciate more, it’s your life.”

He scoffed. “Come on.”

She leaned forward and reached out to him but changed her mind halfway and carefully placed her hand on the table right next to his. “Levi, there is no more valuable thing in the world than human life,” she said in a soft but determined voice.

“Oh, really? And what about the life of the man I killed today? Or the other one that I shot in the hospital? Weren’t their lives valuable as well?”

“They wanted to kill you,” she frowned. “You acted out of self-defense to defend your own valuable life.”

He heaved a short sigh and looked down, his gray eyes fixed on the empty cup in his hands. “You must be an exquisite liar if you believe your own lies like that.”  
“I just…,” it took her a bit longer to find the words than usual. “I’m just worried about you. I don’t think you’re okay.”

He glanced up at her again. “Well, you’re still here with me, so you cannot be too okay either.”

“I guess you’re right,” she muttered into her empty mug and kept staring into it silently. She ran out of arguments and sober thoughts.  
After some hesitation, he put his cup down and took her mug as well, carefully placing them on the coasters on the table. “I’m sorry,” he whispered and leaned closer to her. His lips tasted like bourbon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more fandom-related content check out [my tumblr](https://flora-howell.tumblr.com/)  
> For original work visit [my inkitt](https://www.inkitt.com/florahowell)


	5. Safe and sound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has explicit sexual content. You've been warned.

The kiss caught Petra off guard. Not only because it surprised her, but also because she wouldn’t have expected the man’s touch to be so gentle. Levi cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips against hers softly, patiently tasting every little bit of them. He caressed her lower lip with the tip of his tongue and dipped it between her teeth, making her lips part even more. He leaned in and deepened the kiss, slowly sliding his hands down her neck, her breasts and her waist.

He put a strong arm around her and grabbed her right thigh with his free hand to carefully lift her up and carry her to the bedroom. As he put her down on the edge of the bed so cautiously like she was made of china, Petra, still a little tipsy, couldn’t help but give a small chuckle.

“What?” he knelt down in front of her and pulled away a bit, looking up at her with his brows slightly raised. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just,” she had to think really hard to come up with words. “I imagined you to be a bit… wilder.”

She couldn’t be sure in the dim light, but she thought she saw a slight smile in the corner of Levi’s lips. “So, you imagined me?”

She answered with another chuckle, leaning forward to bury her face in his shoulder. The man held her for a couple of seconds, caressing her back, then grabbed her shoulders to push her away a bit, his gray eyes searching her face carefully. He leaned in for another kiss, a more demanding one this time. He bit her lower lip gently and started moving down, leaving small kisses on her neck, her collarbone and her chest.

She hastily unbuttoned her dress before it could get in his way and threw it on the floor. The already wrinkled piece of clothing was soon followed by her underwear and the towel that somehow was still around Levi’s waist.

Petra couldn’t suppress a silent moan as she felt the man’s warm tongue on her skin, his wet lips lock around her nipple. She felt a wave of goosebumps swiping through her body. She hadn’t been with anyone for a while, and his touch brought out an intense reaction from every little, sensitive part of her.

He cupped her breast with a firm hand and kept moving down. Her breath started to speed up and her heart rate was rising, as his soft lips were caressing her stomach, travelling downwards so slowly that she was going dizzy.

He looked up at her and grabbed her thighs, gently opening her legs wider, not breaking eye contact for a second. No matter how hard she tried to slow down the blood rushing in her veins, she felt herself going red under his gaze. He put an arm under her right leg, pulled it up on his shoulder, and pressed soft kisses on her inner thigh, now moving upwards, even slower. She covered her eyes with one hand and laid down on her back. She just couldn’t stand his gray eyes boring into hers anymore. As punishment for retreating, Levi tightened his grip around her thigh and stopped, his warm breath teasing her mercilessly. She swallowed and bit her lower lip to hold back the pathetic moans trying to escape. She squeezed her eyes shut and muttered a silent “sorry”.

The man didn’t say anything just loosened his grip on her thigh again and caressed her palm with the back of his other hand, letting their fingers intertwine as his lips finally touched her. He gave her a wet a kiss and paused, paying careful attention to her. He waited a bit, caressing her thigh, and went on, carefully tasting one lip and then the other.

She felt warmth spreading through her stomach as his tongue got deeper, finding her most sensitive spots in no time. She arched her back and covered her mouth with a hand to muffle a scream. It didn’t take him for long to make her muscles tense up, her fists clench around the sheet underneath her. “Levi,” she put a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up, giving her time to take some shaky breaths. He stood up and hovered over her, pressing his lips against her forehead.

“Everything okay?” he asked and leaned in for another kiss after she nodded. She took a minute to collect herself and find her breath. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him closer, her fingers grazing the toned muscles of his back. 

She smoothed her hand down his side and stopped on his abs, feeling every solid inch of his six pack. She looked up at him and licked her lips, slowly moving her hand down. She wrapped her fingers around him and started to stroke gently. Levi closed his eyes for a second, allowing the woman to admire his aroused face. He was surprisingly handsome while displaying emotion. She gave him a smile and pulled him down for another kiss with one hand, increasing the pace with the other.

The man smiled at her eagerness and reached down to grab her hand. He stopped it and made her move him closer to herself, his tip barely touching her. He drew small circles on her soft skin, making her heart beat faster again.

She bit her lip and swallowed a moan. She half-consciously tilted her hips, couldn’t wait to feel him inside her. “Please,” she whispered as she looked him in the eye, tightening her grip around him.

He closed his eyes again and took a deep breath before taking both of her hands and pinning them up over her head. He was holding her wrists with one hand and grabbed her hips with the other, angling her for himself. He slowly entered her and paused, waiting for her reaction. He started to move inside her carefully as he loosened his grip around her wrists, letting her hands slip out of his. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him so close that their lips almost touched again.

She could feel his breath on her skin as she closed her eyes, focusing on his thrusts getting faster and deeper. She bit her lower lip again to mute herself, but he freed it from under her teeth with his thumb. She let out a moan and licked his salty skin as he pressed it against the tip of her tongue, slowly pushing it deeper inside her mouth.

She gently bit it and sucked it, as he started to move it in sync with his hips. His thumb caressed her lips, spreading her salvia around, then slowly touched her chin, her neck and the skin between her breasts, moving downwards until he reached her clit. He pressed his finger against and started rubbing her gently, earning some loud moans from her.

Her fingers dug into the hard muscles of his arms as she felt heat building up in her stomach. She squeezed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth, but he suddenly stopped, leaving her gasping for air.

“Not yet,” he whispered into her ear and turned her over, thrusting into her harder from behind. Her breath hitched as he put his arm around her and pulled her up close to his chest. He moved his hands up her waist and squeezed her breasts, his fingers toying with her nipples.

She sank into his arms and reached back up to run her hand through his hair, grabbing it gently and making him pull away from her. She moved her hips so that he would slip out of her and gave him a small smirk. Even though he looked a bit surprised, he didn’t resist as she – still holding him by the hair – made him lay down and bent over him. She gave him a small kiss on the lips and wrapped his fingers around him again, angling him so that she could feel him inside of her again. She started moving on him slowly, their kisses getting more and more demanding.

She paused and pulled away a bit and looked him in the eye, sinking down on him in a painfully slow manner. As he was getting deep inside her she stopped and squeezed him, so that she finally heard him moan too. He was panting and gritting his teeth as she stayed still, looking at him with a half-hidden smirk on her face. She was wondering how long he could last without taking over control again. Apparently, not too long. He waited another couple of seconds, but as she didn’t move, he grabbed her arms and turned her over, rolling her back under himself.

She groaned as he started thrusting again, not so gently as he did before. She put her legs and arms around him. He held her tight and leaned down, sucking and biting into the soft skin of her neck. She almost screamed as she felt his thumb on her clit again, rubbing it while his thrust become slower but deeper. Her nails dug into the skin of his back as she felt heat swipe through her body, making her shake as her muscles tensed for a second, then her whole body relaxed.

She gasped for air and pressed her forehead against his. She squeezed her eyes shut and tightened her grip around his arms as she felt him finish a moment later. His warm breath caressed her skin as he laid his head down on her chest, his body squeezing against hers. He wrapped his arms round her and waited for his breath to even.

She gently stroked his wet hair as he slowly slipped out and cuddled up to her, pressing his cheek against her breasts. She looked at him and kept caressing the nape of his neck. She put her free arm around his waist, spreading her fingers to feel every inch of his now relaxed muscles. She leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss against his wet forehead, trying to make up for the tiny red lines her nails left on the smooth skin of his back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more fandom-related content check out [my tumblr](https://flora-howell.tumblr.com/)  
> For original work visit [my inkitt](https://www.inkitt.com/florahowell)


	6. Told you so

“Yes, yes I know,” Petra woke up to Levi’s voice coming from the bathroom. “Yes, Erwin, he’s dead. You were right. No, there’s no way I’m repeating that.”

She sat up in the bed and glanced at the small clock on the nightstand. It wasn’t even seven in the morning, however, the man must have been awake for a while now. She reached for the aspirin and the glass of water he had left on the small table and drank it all up, forcing a pill down her throat as well. She squeezed her eyes shut as her body slowly started to wake up, punishing her for the amount of whisky she had consumed the night before.

“Alright, see you there.” She heard Levi slam the bathroom door behind him and a second later he walked in, wearing nothing else but a towel around his waist once again. Petra instinctively cast her eyes down, staring into the empty glass in her hand, even though she had no idea what she would have seen that she hadn’t already. Still, she didn’t look up as he walked up to her and threw his phone on the bed. “Good morning.”

“Morning,” she muttered as confidently as she could. She kept looking at the glass, contemplating whether she should start to talk about what had happened last night or not. She guessed Levi was probably for the latter. “Does Erwin want to see you?”

“Yes,” he nodded, threw his towel next to his phone, and turned to his closet.

Petra’s grip tightened around the glass in her hands as her cheeks went slightly red. She had no idea why she was acting like a sixteen-year-old virgin, but somehow the situation seemed to be too much for her to handle. She couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward. “Alright then, I just need a minute, and I’m off.”

“I wasn’t going to throw you out.” He turned back to her as he finally put on a shirt and a pair of trousers.

She shook her head and got out of bed, wrapping the cover around herself. “I really don’t want to keep you, I’ll just…” she stopped and looked around. “Where are my clothes?”

“Still in the dryer,” Levi handed her a soft, oversized shirt. She had no idea where he got that, as it was obviously too big to belong to him. “It’ll take another couple of minutes. I thought you would stay for breakfast. Or at least for a shower.”

“Yes, right,” Petra was almost whispering. She took the shirt alongside a towel, that Levi pulled out from a drawer, and headed to the bathroom, avoiding his eyes carefully.

The hot shower helped Petra to clear her mind and collect her thoughts a bit. She just didn’t understand her own behavior. Why would she make such a big deal out of a one-night stand? She was a grown-ass woman with a medical degree, she should have been able to handle such a simple situation more casually.

By the time she sat down to the glass table in front of one of the most perfect plate of scrambled eggs she had ever seen, she managed to compose herself enough to be able to at least look at the man. Luckily, the aspirin started to kick in, slowly making her headache fade.

“I didn’t know how you liked them,” Levi muttered as he poured some coffee for both of them. “I hope it’s fine the way I eat it.”

“Yes, it’s perfect, thank you,” she grabbed the fork lying next to her plate and picked at the soft, fluffy scrambled eggs.

“Is everything alright?” he asked as he started eating. “You seem a bit troubled.”

“What? No,” she shook her head slightly. “I mean… no. I’m fine. I’m just still a bit hangover.”

“Don’t you have work today?”

“I have the night shift. I’ll be okay by then. What about you?” She really wanted to know how Levi felt about what had happened between them last night but was too afraid to ask a straightforward question. “Is everything… alright?”

The man paused for a second. “There’s actually something that’s been bugging me since yesterday.”

“Really?” she asked as casually as she could. “What is it?”

“Never mind, I’m probably being a bit too paranoid.”

Once she heard his last word, she was sure he wasn’t talking about the two of them. She looked at him with a puzzled face. “Is it your uncle?”

“Yes,” he answered with a curt nod. “I cannot be completely sure about his death. Not until I see his dead body lying in front of me.”

“We both saw his grave, Levi, he’s gone,” she said carefully.

“Yes, I know, but the whole thing just doesn’t add up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just,” he started slowly. “I saw those guys. I have absolutely no idea who they are. Why would they want me dead?”

“They could be assassins.” She shrugged.

“Then someone must have hired them, right? Who? And why did they choose me as a target? I mean, yeah, I might be one of Erwin’s top men but not the only one for sure. Why me? What is more, they planned to attack me in the one graveyard where my uncle, whose death I didn’t know about, is buried. Isn’t that too unlikely to be just a coincidence?”

Petra didn’t have a single answer for any of those questions. She was looking at the man helplessly. Levi’s attackers and his dead uncle weren’t really the things she had in mind in the past few hours.

“I think you might be overthinking a bit,” she said finally. “It’ll be better after you talk to Erwin today. Maybe his team identified those men already. He could give you some explanation about who they are and why they wanted your head.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Levi muttered, staring into his plate.

Petra felt useless sitting next to him like that. The man was clearly frustrated, and his thoughts were nowhere around her or the things that had happened between them. She didn’t want to annoy him.

“I should probably go now,” she stood up and headed back to the bathroom. “I have to get some more sleep before my shift, and I don’t want to hold you up either. We can talk after you meet Erwin, I mean, if you want to just… hit me up.”

She quickly grabbed her clothes from the dryer and got out of the apartment, so that she could finally sink into the embarrassment that filled her about the last twelve hours for some reason. She knew that nothing she had done was wrong in any way, still, she was cursing herself for drinking so much, getting into a one-night stand with a colleague, and then leaving him wiht the words ‘hit me up’.

After a quick stop at the store, she drove home, trying to understand her feelings on the way. Long story short, the analysis wasn’t a good idea. She came to the conclusion that she might have been so upset, because she didn’t want her relationship with Levi to go in the “quick hookup” direction. Unconsciously, she might have been longing for something more substantial, more permanent with him, and she didn’t like that at all.

She was already contemplating whether she should give in to those dangerous feelings or just ignore them and hope for the best, when she was suddenly dragged back to reality. She walked up to her house and froze immediately, almost dropping the paper bag in her hand. As she stepped on the doormat, she felt a strong breeze of air coming from under the front door, which meant that the backdoor was open. Pretending to look for her keys in her bag, she typed in a text for Erwin and held her finger over her phone in case she had to call for help. It could be just Levi’s paranoia infecting her, but she didn’t want to take any risks. She swallowed the lump in her throat and slowly turned the doorknob.

The moment she entered the house, she pressed send and dropped her phone to reach for her lighter with one hand and grab the bottle of hairspray from the paper bag with the other. “Don’t move! Stay where you are!” she warned the unwatned visitor, while holding up the spray with the lighter in front of it.

The man, casually sitting on her couch, laughed and shot her a sly smirk. He raised his hands, revealing the gun he was holding in his right. “Please, don’t burn me, Dr. Ral,” he said in a raspy voice.

“Get out of my house! Now!” she was trying to hold back the hysteria in her voice, but she could hear herself almost screaming.

“Now?! Now what? Shall I stay where I am or get out of your house? I’m a very talented man, doctor, but even I can’t to both.”

She glared at him.

“Alright Dr. Ral,” he sighed. “Petra. Can I call you Petra?”

She gave him another, even more intense glare.

“Dr. Ral it is,” he nodded. “I don’t want no trouble here. I just want my well-deserved revenge.”

“So you’re really alive,” she furrowed her brows. She was trying to calm herself down and clear her mind, but her head was filled with panic.

“Uh, well, yes,” he shrugged and scratched the back of his neck. “Have you figured that out just now? Because that was fairly obvious already. I thought you should be a little bit smarter than that, I mean, you’re a doctor after all.”

“What the hell are you doing in my house?”

“Oh, yes, my evil plan. Where was I? Revenge on Levi, I already said that. Now, I’m sorry, Dr. Ral, but I’m afraid I’ll have to kill you.” He pointed the gun at her as he stood up and took a step forward.

Petra’s blood turned to ice. She swallowed and lifted her hands higher in front of her. “No, you won’t. You could have killed me already. You could have shot me the moment I entered the building, but you didn’t.” She finally felt thoughts return to her mind. She started to back up slowly, not letting her guard down for a second.

“Oh, so you are smart,” the man laughed. “Thing is, I don’t want you to just die, like that. My original plan was to have a little bit of fun with you before I end your life. So that my dear nephew knows that you were suffering before your tragic, early death. But I must admit I didn’t do my research. I didn’t expect you to be such an amazon. You definitely don’t look like one.”

So he didn’t remember her. Good. “I’m sorry, but I think you’re on the wrong track here,” she said carefully, trying to get as far away from the man as possible. She remembered that he liked to hear his own voice. She just had to keep him talking until reinforcement arrived. “Levi and I are good colleagues, but I don’t think he would be too upset about my death. He’s not the sentimental type, you know.”

“Don’t try to fool me, woman. I know you’re important to him. I know everything. I know he came to you after my man almost killed him and then he spent a couple of days here. Just the two of you. Isn’t that romantic?”

Petra shook her head. “I just owed him a favor. That’s all.”

“I also know how you ran after him to the graveyard. I was there. I saw you two. I also know that you were the one who called for backup. He would never do that. So don’t try to fuck me up with that wrong track bullshit. I know everything. I’m a pretty smart man myself, you know.”

“I don’t think so,” she disagreed calmly. “I’m not sure if you realized, but all of your attempts at killing Levi has been unsuccessful so far.”

“What can I say? I’m a man of style. I wanted to chase him. I wanted him to run for his life like the rat he is. I wanted him to run right up to my grave where I can finally end his pitiful life of a traitor.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Well, I don’t know,” he rolled his eyes. “I guess someone got in the way.”

“Sorry about that, but you can kill him now. I won’t get in the way, I promise,” she lied.

“Told you already,” he shook his head. “Don’t try to mislead me. I know you two are cozy. I saw you and him at my grave.”

“Sorry, I didn’t peg you to be such a relationship expert.”

“I’m an everything expert,” he scoffed. “But I must admit you surprised me. I would have never imagined him having such intimate feelings towards a nice woman like you. I thought I did a good job in his youth making him understand that he doesn’t need love or affection – and doesn’t deserve them either.”

Petra wanted to disagree but somehow managed to remain silent.

“I was convinced: even if he catches some of those romancey feelings everyone keeps fussing about, there will be not one idiot on this Earth to reciprocate them. But it seems like there is. Here you are.” He took a dramatic pause as he kept walking towards her. “Stupid enough to care for such a hateful, bitter son of a bitch.”

“I wouldn’t advise you to come any closer than that,” Petra said, her voice determined. She wasn’t sure whether the man was trying to provoke her, or he was just naturally that awful, but she didn’t even care. She wanted to burn him. “I won’t hesitate to stop you, Mr. Ackerman. Unlike you, I never fail to eliminate my target. You would know that, if you had done your research properly.”

He gave a small laugh. “And where would be the fun in that?” he grinned and fired a warning shot into the armchair in front of Petra.

The woman had to get down on the floor behind the piece of furniture, letting him out of sight for the first time since she had stepped in the house. She swallowed and took a deep breath, trying to collect her thoughts. There was no way she let that horrible man hurt her. Besides, he was running out of time. She swallowed hard again, tightened her grip around the lighter and the spray, and jumped out from behind the armchair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more fandom-related content check out [my tumblr](https://flora-howell.tumblr.com/)  
> For original work visit [my inkitt](https://www.inkitt.com/florahowell)


	7. Closure

Petra never tried to burn anyone before, so naturally, she was a but uncertain about her next steps. She jumped out from behind the armchair, aimed at the man’s eyes, and, as fast as she could, disappeared behind the couch to avoid the shots he was firing at her blindly. Now she didn’t see him either, but judging from his painful, angry growls she managed to hit her target. She breathed out and waited a few seconds. She didn’t dare to leave her shelter, so she stayed down and listened to the man’s footsteps.

“Do you really think you can defeat me with a fucking spray?” Kenny shouted. “I still have plenty of bullets for you. There’s no way you’re getting out of here alive.”  
Petra lifted the deodorant to her ear and shook it slightly. It wasn’t completely empty yet, but there wasn’t enough left to burn him alive either. On an impulse, she threw the spray bottle back behind the armchair to distract the man, jumped over the couch and kicked the gun out of his hand.

While she was proud of the elegant maneuver she managed to pull off, she also realized that it might not have been the best idea. Now, if she wanted to keep Kenny from getting his gun back, she didn’t have a choice but to defeat him in hand-to-hand combat. She swallowed hard and jumped at him instead of thinking, knocking him to the ground.

“Fucking hell,” the man shouted, laughing. He grabbed Petra’s shoulders and pushed her down to tower over her, looking down at his pray like a predator. “What a spicy little bitch you are. I mean, don’t misunderstand me, you’re annoying as fuck, but you do have guts. I like that.”

Petra was gasping for air, trying to get over the panic growing in her stomach. She couldn’t give up. She just had to hold on a little more. She summoned her reserves, freed her arms from the man’s grip and reached up, sinking her nails into the burned skin under his eyes. Kenny screamed in pain while laughing like a maniac.

“You know I really thought that this would be just another boring kill, but I’m impressed. I didn’t expect such a fun fight,” he growled with a wide grin and grabbed the girls throat, his long boney fingers digging into her neck hard. “You’re a great playmate, Dr Ral, it almost hurts me to take your life.”

Petra gritted her teeth and drove her nails into the man’s wrists, scraping and scratching his skin, leaving bloody, red lines behind. He didn’t even seem to feel it though. The more desperate she got, the more joy she saw in his crazy eyes. She tried to stop the hot tears burning her eyes as she kept fighting for air. She didn’t want to give him the satisfaction to see her fall apart. She tried to ignore the signs her brain was sending her that she was getting less and less oxygen.

She was already feeling dizzy and had to fight hard to keep her eyes open. But luckily, she did, because at that moment, her last ray of hope, a tiny red dot appeared on Kenny’s face, moving around his forehead. Petra summoned all strength left in her body and threw the man off her, pushing him in front of the window.

A second later, a bullet broke through the glass, right into whatever was at the place where the man’s heart should have been.

The next thing Petra felt were the firm arms around her, keeping her from falling to the ground as she was still gasping for air. “You’re fucking wild,” Levi whispered in her ear and helped her to the couch.

“I hope you’re satisfied now,” she said, her voice hoarse. “There’s his dead body. You can see it for yourself.”

Levi nodded, holding her still and looking down at her with all the worry Petra ever saw in his dark eyes. He looked like he was about to say something but was interrupted by Erwin walking up to them, looking sharp as always, ready to take care of a dead body once again. “Dr. Ral, sorry about that,” he said as if he was just apologizing for accidently bumping into her in the corridor.

Petra didn’t say anything. She looked up at him, still breathing heavily.

“Naturally, we’ll replace all damaged furniture,” he jerked his head at the holes in the armchair next to them.

“Thanks, the fuck, Erwin, she must feel much better now,” Levi commented, not letting her go for a second.

The man ignored him and kept talking to Petra. “Also, Hange’s just arrived to take a look at you.”

Petra managed to squeeze out an “Alright, thank you,” and let Levi take her to the bedroom where her colleague could examine her in piece. Luckily, she didn’t seem to have any serious injuries apart from a couple of ugly bruises on her neck and the trauma.

As Hange was inspecting her, she was taking deep breaths to calm herself a bit, but no matter how hard she tried she couldn’t put her mind at ease. She had never been in such a directly life-threatening situation before. She didn’t think much during the attack, so her mind just started to process the last twenty minutes or so. Actually, she didn’t even have any idea how long she was fighting Kenny, she had completely lost track of time.

“Alright, I think we’re good here,” Hange said at after a thorough examination. “The blood on your hands are not yours, I suppose.”

Petra shook her head, trying hard to ignore the vivid memories of Kenny’s half-burned face invading her mind. “Thank you.”

They nodded. “Fine then. As I said, there’s nothing serious, however, you might want to spend a couple of days in the hospital, just to make sure you’re okay. I mean you don’t have to, but I would be calmer if you didn’t stay alone in the next couple of days.”

“She won’t be alone,” Levi, pushing himself away from the table that he had been leaning against in silence until now.

“Alright,” Hange flashed him a tiny smile. “I’ll take my leave then. Get well soon, Petra.”

“Thank you,” Petra smiled at her colleague and wanted to get up to follow them, but a firm hand on her shoulder stopped her.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Levi asked with the tone of a prison guard.

“I wanted to see Hange out.” She looked up at him, confused. “I was also planning on making coffee. Don’t worry, I didn’t want to go any further than the kitchen.”  
“No, please, you just stay here. I got you.” He grabbed her legs and put them back on the bed. “Wouldn’t tea be a better choice though? You know, for… health reasons?”

“I don’t know, doctor, would it?” she raised a brow playfully.

“Fine, coffee it is,” he murmured and left the room to return a few minutes later with the most neatly organized tray Petra ever saw.

“Thank you,” she smiled up at him as he put it in her lap.

“Erwin and the others are gone. He says your new armchairs and couch should arrive in maximum five workdays. They also cleaned up in the living-room and in the kitchen. I would say they did a satisfactory job.”

“Good,” Petra said silently, looking down at her own hand putting sugar into her coffee.

“I hope it’s okay if I stay here. I’ve just realized that I didn’t even ask you. I could take you to the hospital if that’s where you want to be instead.”  
“No, it’s fine. I’m glad you’re here,” she muttered, her eyes still fixed at the dark beverage in front of her.

He pulled up a chair to the bed and sat down, also staring at his hands silently for a couple of seconds. “I think I owe you an apology,” he said finally.  
“I don’t think you do.” Petra shook her head before he could continue, but he went on anyway.

“I shouldn’t have let you so close. I should have thought that you might become a target thanks to me.”

Petra closed her eyes and heaved a small sigh before she looked up at him with a mildly vexed expression on her face. At that moment, she was just too drained for his bullshit. “Really? Is that your conclusion? That this whole thing happened because of you letting me too close?”

The man looked genuinely confused. “Well, I also should have trusted my instincts when I thought Kenny was still alive.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter what you should have done, does it? Let’s concentrate on what we should do now.”

“I agree,” he nodded. “I’ll stay here and take care of you until you’re fully recovered. After that you’ll only have to see me when it’s absolutely necessary at work. I swear.”

Petra raised a brow. “Is that what you want?” she asked quietly.

“It doesn’t matter what I want.” He shook his head. “I can’t put you through such danger ever again.”

“Do you have many other vengeful uncles left?” she asked, allowing herself a half-smile at her own joke.

“You know what I mean. There might be others who want to get me. My work for Erwin doesn’t always make me the people’s favorite. Things often get messy. I don’t want you to get involved in anything like that ever again.”

She looked down at her mug, tracing its rim with one finger. She waited a couple of seconds in silence, then nodded. “Okay. If that’s what you want, I accept it.”

When she glanced back up at him, she was almost sure that she saw a quick look of shock flashing across his face. “Are you surprised?” she asked carefully.

“No,” he murmured.

“Yes, you are.” She couldn’t help but give him a sly smile. “You didn’t think I would agree to that so easily, did you?”

“I didn’t think anything,” he shook his head.

“Yes, you did,” Petra laughed. She couldn’t decide whether the sudden rush of joy was the result of Levi expecting her to disagree with his unnecessary heroic restraint or the sedatives Hange had given her, but she didn’t really care. She was having the time of her life. “You expected me to protest against your stupid suggestion, I know. You don’t really want to distance yourself from me, do you?”

“I already told you; it doesn’t matter what I want. This is the right thing to do.”

“This is hilarious.” She grinned into her mug. “You like me so much.”

“Of course, I like you. I finally feel joy when I spend time with you. You’ve given me more affection and care than I got in my entire life. You’re kind and caring. You’re incredibly intelligent. You’re a doctor, you save lives. You’re a wonderful person. That’s why you should stay on this world as long as possible. That’s why I have to protect you.”

Poor man looked so defeated Petra started to feel bad about teasing him. He was obviously conflicted about his feelings, and she was making fun of him. “I can protect myself. Just an hour ago, I almost brunt your uncle alive, remember?” she tried to cheer him up a bit.

“Yes, and he almost killed you!” he raised his voice for the first time.

Now she felt sorry for him. He really seemed to be struggling about what he should do with their relationship. He was genuinely worried for her safety, and she had to admit that was a legitimate concern after what had happened earlier.

“Okay,” she said softly and reached out to wrap her fingers around his hand, giving him a gentle squeeze. “You know what? Maybe we can meet halfway. Let’s not separate completely. We could still meet from time to time, we don’t have to make a public announcement about it.”

“I thought about that too, but don’t you think that a secret relationship would be disappointing?”

“It wouldn’t necessarily be a secret relationship; I mean, it’s not even a relationship yet. We just keep seeing each other and don’t cry it out from the house-tops. Some of our closest friends can know about it.”

“Luckily we don’t have many of those,” he nodded. “So, this could work I guess.”

“Yes,” she gave him a smile. “I suggest we give ourselves some time to think and come back to it later. Let’s concentrate on the days we’ll spend together right now. I’m very happy that you decided to stay with me. I think we should enjoy this time.”

“Sounds good.” A tiny, smile-like thing appeared on Levi’s face as he stood up to take the tray out. “I’ll get us something to eat then. Do you want anything specific?”  
Petra thought for a second. “Chinese?”

“Chinese,” he nodded and gave her a real smile this time. Not a big smile, but a real one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For more fandom-related content check out [my tumblr](https://flora-howell.tumblr.com/)  
> For original work visit [my inkitt](https://www.inkitt.com/florahowell)


End file.
